Fed sees the bright side… Bernanke says worst it over, inflation not a worry… Warren Buffett can’t see any green shoots… even after eye surgery… Alan Knuckman on how to survive a sideways stock market… Byron King says now’s a good time to book profits on this sector… Housing still out of whack… one chart foreshadows the market’s next move…

A week that saw the war on taxpayers expand onto to several new fronts also saw US Senate Republicans win a pitched procedural battle to keep gas at the pump grossly inflated.

You’ve likely heard of being “bushwhacked.” Well, yesterday the market got Fed-whacked. Notes from the Federal Reserve’s April 29-30 meeting were released and, boy, did they make for some unpleasant reading.

Oil company profits came under the spotlight yesterday as Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee strove to ‘take on’ the record profits of oil companies. This from The New York Times:

Such showdowns between lawmakers and oil titans have become a familiar routine on Capitol Hill. But with gas prices nearing $4 a gallon, and lawmakers headed home for a weeklong Memorial Day recess where they expect to get an earful from angry constituents, there is added urgency for Congress to appear active.

As gas prices near $4 a gallon across America, oil companies have announced record profits.

According to The Washington Post: “US oil major Exxon Mobil reported $8.4 billion in first-quarter profit yesterday, as members of Congress outraged over high gasoline prices hastened to propose measures that would boost taxes on oil firms, open new areas to drilling and provide rebates to taxpayers but would not necessarily alter prices at the pumps.”